Broken Lives
by pottergirl17
Summary: HR.Hermione leaves Ron one night after another one of their arguments. Five years later do they still feel the same way, and can a certain someone help bring them back together? What about the fact that they now have a son whom Ron hasn't been told about?
1. When She's Gone

Goes along to song- That ain't no way to go by: Brooks and Dunn

Taking another long swig of firewhiskey, Ron gingerly placed the bottle back down on the counter and looked around bar. Nothing was the same anymore. Life as he knew it would never be the same…especially with her out if his life. He never knew why she left. She never let on that she was unhappy. All he did was love her and try to make her content, but apparently that wasn't enough for her. Now, colors were no longer the same to him. Deep blues looked faded and warn, reds no longer meant passion or love but a sense of hurt and shame. How could this happen to him? She was his one true love, and she just walked out of his life without even saying goodbye to his face. The events of that dreadful morning were still glued to his memory. They would be there forever.

_Sunlight had just begun to seep into his dreary apartment, causing him to crack his eyes open. It was another day...hopefully a good one. Turning over to kiss her good morning, his lips felt nothing and he quickly opened his eyes wider to find that she was no longer in bed, and the sheets had been pulled down. Tiredly, Ron pulled down the sheets from his body and slowly placed his feet on the floor. Rubbing his eyes, he began to make his way to the bathroom. He grabbed his toothbrush from the cabinet against the wall, placed some toothpaste on it, ran the toothbrush under the water, and began to brush his teeth. After finishing that, he quickly ran a comb through his fiery red hair, flattening down what sleeping had done to mess it up. He hurriedly walked out of the bathroom to go and see if she was downstairs. When he closed the door he heard the sound of paper falling, and he looked down to find a piece of paper with her writing on it, lying on the ground._

_Bending down to pick it up, he brought the piece of paper to his reading level, and read what few words were placed on it._

_Ron,_

_This is Goodbye. I'm sorry. I really am. _

_I don't want to hurt you this way, but I_

_have to leave._

_Hermione_

_His face slowly began to redden at these words, getting close to the color of his hair. What was she talking about? She is leaving, she's sorry? This can't be real. What have I done to deserve this? We were doing fine. Newly weds; the perfect couple. At least that's what Ginny called them. It's a dream that's what it is…a terrible dream. _

_The piece of parchment Hermione left him fell from his hands as he ran downstairs from his bedroom to find an empty kitchen and family room. There was no one in the guest bedroom, and no one in the basement. She really was gone._

Red lipstick letter

'Cross the mirror this morning

Said, "Goodbye, baby."

You left without warning.

Like a thief in the night,

You ran away with my heart.

I can't believe my eyes,

Must be a bad dream.

You always said

We had a good thing.

You never once let on that we were falling apart.

Ron's face turned to a grimace as he remembered how quickly she had just left. He had become rash after that, desperate more like. He didn't remember why he did it. It seemed so stupid now, like she would really have gone to the places that he had checked.

_Throwing on his coat, he ran out of the apartment. He still had his pajamas on, but he didn't care. All that mattered was finding Hermione, bringing her back, and solving whatever was wrong._

_He quickly apparated on the spot, once he got out of the apartment, and appeared in front of a plain flat which used to be Hermione's old house before she moved in with him. Throwing open the door, he tore the place apart looking for anywhere she could have hidden…any clue to where she had gone. He found nothing._

_Frustrated, he apparated to the only other place he thought she would run to if she was mad at him: Harry and Ginny's house. Their house looked empty when he walked up, but when he knocked on the door he could hear footsteps approaching, and his sisters face appeared when the door opened. "Is she here?" he asked._

"_What are you talking about?" his sister asked back, confused._

"_Damn it, is Hermione here?" he shouted._

"_No." his sister replied a little surprised. Ron began to sink down against the wall of the house as tears began to form in his eyes. She was gone. She was really gone. Bloody hell! How could she leave like that? Not one word of goodbye to his face. Just like that in the blink of an eye she was gone. Apparently she forgot about her friendship between him and Harry. Maybe it was just a lie for all these years. He slammed his hand against the house in frustration, ignoring the pain that it caused. He could still see some shock resting within his sister's eyes. "Ron?" Ginny asked softly. "Where's Hermione? What's wrong? What did you do?"_

"_Bloody well nothing." He told her. "I just woke up this morning to find a note from her saying 'This is goodbye. I am sorry. I really am. I don't want to hurt you this way, but I have to leave.'" He said to her in a mock Hermione voice. _

"_Oh, Ron, I'm so sorry." His sister told him, sitting down on the ground against the house next to him. She pulled her brother into a hug, and he leaned his head against his sister's shoulder, trying to hold back the tears that were forming in his eyes._

"_Did she ever tell you anything?" Ron asked her. "Did she ever tell you she was unhappy or there was someone else?"_

"_No." Ginny said. "I'm sorry. I thought your relationship was going wonderfully."_

"_Ya." Said Ron, "Me too. Apparently she didn't."_

That ain't no way to go.

Girl, it just ain't right.

Don't you think

That I deserve to hear you say goodbye?

That ain't no way to go.

Was it all a lie?

After all this time,

That ain't no way to go.

"Another firewhiskey." Ron told the bartender as he walked by, pushing his empty bottle forward to him.

"Okay." He told Ron as he took the empty bottle away. Ron turned around trying to stop the memories as they all began flooding in, but once he had started he just couldn't stop. It had been five years since she had left him. Five long years filled with pain. Five long years of trying to forget her face, her voice, her everything. Five long years of trying to move on. He just assumed that she had found someone else now. He imagined that she was married and had a kid. It was hard, but it was the only medicine he had to heal his broken heart: to move on. She had, so he had to as well.

"Here you go." The bartender told Ron, as he turned around and grabbed the firewhiskey that he was offering.

"Thanks." said Ron, as he took another huge sip. It burned as it ran down his throat, but he didn't mind. Nothing could match the pain that he had felt that day five years ago.

Getting nowhere,

I'm tired of thinking.

Guess I'll do a little

Wishful drinking.

Make a whiskey wish

Upon a star.

A whistle blew outside the bar, signaling that the Hogsmede train was leaving. Ron couldn't ever bring himself to ride that train again. He couldn't find it in himself to leave the town. He could run into her somewhere…wherever she had started her new life. That would be just as bad as finding her note the day she had left: seeing the man that she had left him for.

Train whistles blowing

Down the tracks.

Lonesome sound says

She ain't coming back.

It's such a cold blow

From out in the dark

Emptying the new bottle that the barman had given him, he placed the money that he owed on the counter and walked outside of the bar. As if fate really hated him, when he glanced up he thought he saw the familiar face of a woman, her brown curls bouncing around as she walked down the street, a young child holding her hand. _I'm just drunk_ he thought, as he apparated away on the spot.

The popping noise that he made as he disappeared covered up the woman's voice muttering: "Ron, is that you?" She woman hurriedly rushed over to the spot where he had disappeared. "I'm so sorry." She muttered to nothing. "I didn't want to go…I really didn't, but I couldn't stay. I don't know why, but I just couldn't." she continued while her head began to look down, her brown hair covering her face. "This is your son, in case you wanted to know." she whispered, still to nothing. "I'm so sorry." She said again as she grabbed her son's hand and continued to walk down the street. Tears began to stream down her face. She couldn't go back to where he lived, that would hurt too much, but maybe if she just saw him in town she would muster up the courage to tell him…to explain to him the reasons she gave herself as to why she had gone. "Maybe Ron just wasn't meant to know." she thought aloud, as she disappeared out of sight.

That ain't no way to go.

Girl, it just ain't right.

Don't you think

That I deserve

To hear you say goodbye?

That ain't no way to go.

Was it all a lie?

After all this time,

That ain't no way to go.


	2. Leaving You

Hermione quietly crept down the stairs of her tiny apartment building after putting her son to bed. He was now four years old, and a living reminder of the night that she had left Ron in the middle of the night. The night nothing had gone right. The night she left and never turned back. He looked exactly like his father: Flaming red hair and those dazzling blue eyes…he almost made Hermione cry every time she looked at him.

She sighed as she walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to pull out a jug of water. Pulling out a glass from the cabinet, she poured the water into the glass and took a big sip. _That night should have gone perfectly_ she thought, as she tried to remember every last detail of what had happened.

_A cold breeze swept through the air as Hermione walked up the steps that led to their three bedroom apartment. She bundled her jacket tighter, and ran up the rest of the steps while fumbling for her key when she got to the door. Once unlocked, she tried to hide her excited smile, but did so with difficulty, so when she walked through the door, her face was beaming. Ron sat on the steps that led to the upstairs bedrooms of their house, looking impatient and agitated._

"_Where have you been?" he asked. "It's almost midnight, and you didn't even tell me you were coming home this late. I've been worried sick!"_

"_Sorry," said Hermione, while she took off her coat and hung it on the rack that stood next to her. "The girls and I were having a celebration dinner for your sister and her promotion." Hermione paused before she continued, "I thought Ginny told you we were going out tonight?"_

"_Well, she didn't," said Ron, "and neither did you. So how do I know that you haven't been gallivanting the night away with some random other guy, or maybe even someone I know?" asked Ron._

"_You're so thick!" said Hermione, her voice raising a bit. "I married Y-O-U. Why would I go running off with some other guy…and not my one true love?" She added in a seductive tone towards the end. She was preparing to tell him the news she had found out only hours ago that night._

"_Oh, so now you're going to seduce me just after you cheated on me? What's wrong with you tonight, Hermione? I've been waiting all night to tell you that I have been fired from my job, and all you can think to do is stay out late doing who knows what, and trying to seduce me. Thanks a lot, you're real supportive." He retorted and walked away into the kitchen._

"_You've been fired?" asked Hermione. "Why? What happened?"_

"_Boss was a jerk." He muttered, not looking into her eyes. There were a few seconds of silence before he added "You know what, I think that I am just going to go to bed."_

"_But, Ron." She pleaded, catching his arm. "I have some news to tell you as well!"_

"_Tell me in the morning, it can wait." He told her as he pulled his arm from her grip, and began to stomp up the stairs._

"_But, Ron…it's important." She told him, her eyes staring into his, willing him to listen._

"_Why don't you tell the guy you were with tonight, then." He told her. "I'm sure he'd be interested to hear the 'important' news that you have!"_

"_Ronald Billus Weasley get back down here!" she shouted up to him, running up the stairs only to see him slam the door in her face. _

"_Tomorrow." Was the only word that emitted from the door. It was softer than the words that he had said to her moments before, but she was too angry to notice. Stomping back down the stairs, she yanked her jacket back off the rack, grabbed her keys that had accidentally fallen out of her pocket and onto the floor, and marched back outside into the chilly night._

"_Yes, Ronald. I do have unimportant news." She muttered to herself, there was a cold and hurt sound to her voice. "Were only JUST going to have a baby...nothing much, just a baby." And with that, she apparated away into the cold, dark night._

She never returned after that night, never said "Goodbye" to anyone. She made a letter appear in Ron's bedroom briefly explaining that she was leaving, but never did anything else to explain why she had left. She was just gone. Gone to the city of Durham up north. Far away from London…far away from Ron. She didn't know any other reasons why she apparated there, but she didn't care. As long as she was away from Ron, who was as sensitive as a pea.

Nine months later, she had a beautiful baby boy named Jacob Weasley. Even though she had left Ron, she always kept his last name, hoping that one day she would be able to face him again, and they would someday be able to live together again…one happy family.

Placing her glass down on the counter, Hermione walked into her family room and sat on the couch. She picked up a bag of floo-powder that was sitting on the end table and balanced in the palm of her hand. This was the first step to regaining the life that she had so stupidly left. Using this floo-powder…talking to Harry. Harry would know what to do.

She walked over to the fire place and hesitantly untied the string that bound together the powder. The sides of the pouch flipped down around her fingers once that was done, and a few pieces of powder fell to the ground. Placing her shaking hand into the bag, she grabbed a handful and placed it over the fire. "853 Rivet Circle" she said clearly while she stood to place her head into the fire place. She ended up tripping though, and her whole body tumbled foreword, spinning around and around before she finally stopped, stumbling foreword into what she remembered to be Harry and Ginny's kitchen. It hadn't changed since she was last there. Two heads turned around at kitchen table from the noise of her entrance, both not believing what they were seeing.

"Hermione is that you?" Ginny whispered, while Hermione made the soot that she had acquired on her body during the trip disappear.

"Um…ya." Hermione replied, a little hesitant about what their reactions would be to her arrival.

"Thank goodness." sighed Ginny. "We've been worried sick about what had happened to you for years!" she added while embracing Hermione in a hug. Harry came over and gave her a welcoming hug as well after his wife.

"So…why did you decided to come back after all these years?" asked Harry. "And what really did happen that night? Ron hasn't been one to elaborate. What can I do to help you?"

"I came back to fix the mistake I made a long time ago." She told him looking deep into his emerald green eyes.

"I can help with that." Harry told her, a smile growing on his face.

Hermione hurried down the empty streets of Hogsmede, Jacob tightly holding her hand. She had promised to take him there as a treat if he was good while they were staying at Harry and Ginny's. He had, so she kept her promise.

During the week that she had come back to London, she stayed with Harry and Ginny while she moved all of hers and Jacob's things back into the old flat that she used to live in. It had been a long process, but she hadn't been the only one working…Harry had been working on a plan for the perfect way to get his two best friends back together. He wouldn't tell her what he was planning, so all she could do was hope that Ron would forgive her.

A bell rang to her right, signaling that a door was being opened. She turned her head, and stopped in her tracks when she saw the same red-headed, blue-eyed person that she had fallen in love with a long time ago. The one who's son reflected his face. He glanced her way, and Hermione's heart skipped a beat when she thought that he had recognized her, but he quickly brought his head back down, and prepared to apparate.

"Ron, is that you?" she shouted, ignoring the fact that Harry was coming up with a plan to bring them back together. She hurriedly rushed over to where he was standing, to stop him, but it was too late. He hadn't heard her, and he had apparated away. "I'm so sorry." She muttered to the empty spot where he had once been standing. "I didn't want to go…I really didn't, but I couldn't stay. My anger just took a hold of me, and I just couldn't stay." She continued while her head began to look down, her brown hair covering her face. "This is your son, in case you wanted to know." she whispered, still to the empty spot where his body once had been. "I'm so sorry." She repeated before she grabbed her son's hand again and continued to walk down the street. Tears started to stream down her face. How was she ever going to talk to Ron face to face if it had taken her five years just to come back home? She couldn't just go running up to his place. That would be too hard, and seem too desperate. Maybe one day she would be able to muster up the courage to tell him one day, but not today. "Maybe Ron just wasn't meant to know." she thought aloud as she disappeared down the street.

It had been a month since Hermione had seen Ron at Hogsmede. One long month of planning and figuring out the right moment, time, and place to set up Ron and hers reunion. One long, slowly passing month.

Finally, tonight was the night: The anniversary of the day that they had first met…that fateful day on the Hogwarts Express thirteen years ago. Harry had told Ron that they, as in him, Ron, and Ginny, were having dinner together at a fancy restaurant called Haydee's. He neglected to mention that Hermione would be coming along as well. Not to mention that they would be sitting at two separate tables on complete opposite sides of the room.

Hermione quickly threw on a slim black dress that fitted her features perfectly. She didn't even look as though she had already had a child. She carefully put on some make-up, a dab of perfume, and was out the door with Harry and Ginny by eight. Mrs. Weasley was watching Jacob tonight.

When they apparated in front of the restaurant, Hermione began to get a little worried. "Don't worry." Harry reassured her. "Everything will turn out fine. You know Ron just as well as I do." Hermione nodded at his comment. He was right, but butterflies still began to fly around in her stomach as she walked inside.

Ron wasn't in the restaurant when they arrived. This helped her nerves a little bit, but not much. She sat down the table that Harry had reserved for Ron and her, and couldn't help but try to keep herself focused while a wave of dizziness swept over her. This was the night that she had been waiting almost five years for.

Ron entered the restaurant minutes later, causing, what Hermione thought, to make her heart stop beating. He looked just like she had remembered from the month ago that she had seem him in Hogsmede, except more put together. His fiery hair slimmed down, his dazzling blue eyes shining. She stared as he walked over to where Ginny and Harry were sitting, only to be pointed by Harry's hand in Hermione's direction. She quickly turned her head away, staring at the wall, all the while she could hear the ring his shoes made off the floor. Slow, soft, persistent, until finally, they stopped. Afraid but excited, Hermione turned her head to see Ron, standing a few feet away from her, not moving but just staring at her face. He glanced back at Harry and Ginny once more, before he finally took the last few steps to the table, and sat himself down.

"So it was you that I saw in Hogsmede." He commented. Hermione tried to read his face, tried to find some emotion that he was feeling about seeing her after all these years, but couldn't. His face was a blank slate.

"Yes, it was." Said Hermione, trying to figure out where the conversation was going.

Neither of them talked for a few minutes. They just sat in silence while a waiter came and took their orders. There were a few more minutes filled with silence after that, crammed with Harry and Ginny continuously glancing back at their table to see how their conversation was flowing. Finally, Hermione couldn't take the silence anymore, and she spoke. "So how have you been?" she asked, trying to make some small talk.

"Fine." He answered, while he began to study her face. She reddened a bit, but continued to press on.

"What about your brother's? How are they doing?" she asked.

"Fine." He repeated.

"What about your parents? How are they?" she continued.

"Fine." Was the answer he gave her once again.

"Okay, well…how's life—" Hermione stopped mid-sentence when she saw that Ron wasn't paying attention anymore. "I think I am just going to leave." Said Hermione while she stood up and turned around. A hand grabbed her arm before she could go any further.

"I have some news to tell you." He said when she looked back at him. She saw the playfulness in his eyes that she was once so accustomed to many years ago, that she couldn't help but smile.

"Tell me in the morning, it can wait." She told him, a suspicious look on her face, while she played along with what he was doing, pulling her hand from his grip to turn away.

"But, Hermione…it's important." He said, staring into her eyes, willing her to listen to him, just as she had done just over five years ago.

"Why don't you tell the girl you were out with tonight then?" she said to him. "I'm sure she'd be interested the 'important' news you have."

"Actually, I'm quite sure she is interested to hear the 'important' news that I have." Said Ron, changing up the script that she had been going by.

"Oh, really?" said Hermione, wondering what he would say next.

"Yes." He said. "Because that girl that I went out with tonight is still standing in front of me, and I'm quite positive that she really wants to hear the important news that I have."

"What's that news then?" Hermione asked in full anticipation.

"That I love her, and I'll never let her out of my sight again!" he said, beaming.

"We'll that's good news." Hermione told him, while she grabbed his hand again, "because the girl you went out with tonight has some important news as well."

"Oh, ya? And what is that?" he asked, changing his expression to a curious one.

"She still loves you to and will never let you leave her sight again." She said, wrapping her arms around his neck, and pulling him in for a kiss that she had missed and wanted for so many years. They kissed for what seemed like forever, but must have only been a few seconds before they broke apart, and sat back down properly in their seats, \ holding hands all the while.

Harry and Ginny were smiling from across the restaurant, but quickly turned away as if they had seen nothing when Hermione glanced over at them. This caused her to laugh.

"So what was the important news that you were going to tell me that night that I didn't listen to you?" Ron asked her, deeply interested, instead of self-absorbed like last time.

"That you were going to be a father." She told him.

Hermione opened to door to The Burrow, and quietly crept inside, followed by Ron. They passed the family room and kitchen, until they got to the stairs and began to walk up them. Mrs. Weasley walked out of a room just as they reached the top, and a big smile erupted on her face while tears began to form in here eyes. She nodded at the two before she walked away, leaving them to what they had been planning to do.

Hermione opened the door that Mrs. Weasley had just walked out of, and used her wand to light up the room. There on his father's old bed lay Jacob, pretending to be asleep for his mom.

"Jacob, wake up." said Hermione, while tapping her son's arm to get him to open his eyes. "There's someone I want you to meet." She added. Jacob instantly opened his eyes after that and sat up. He looked at his mom and then at Ron who was standing next to her. Hermione was about to introduce him, when Jacob cut her off as he pulled himself out from under the covers and over to Ron.

"I love you, daddy." He said, his cute little smile spreading across his face. Ron pulled him up into his arms and smiled back at him.

"How do you know I am your dad?" he asked.

"Grandma told me." He simply said. "She showed me how I look just like you." Said Jacob, while he pulled a moving photo from inside his sleeve out to show his father. It was a picture of Ron just around his age, smiling back up at him.

"Yes, you do." Said Ron, "And you know what else, Jacob?"

"What Daddy?" he asked, obviously loving that fact that he could say the word to someone now.

"I love you too." Ron told him.


End file.
